Product description

#1 "New York Times "Bestseller
Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?
Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we're consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become. With "In Defense of Food," Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.
"Michael Pollan [is the] designated repository for the nation's food conscience."
-Frank Bruni, "The New York Times"
" A remarkable volume . . . engrossing . . . [Pollan] offers those prescriptions Americans so desperately crave."
"-The Washington Post"
"A tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be redced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential... [a] lively, invaluable book."
--Janet Maslin, "The New York Times"
""In Defense of Food" is written with Pollan's customary bite, ringing clarity and brilliance at connecting the dots."
"-The Seattle Times"
Michael Pollan's newest book "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation"--the story of our most trusted food expert's culinary education--was published by The Penguin Press in April 2013.

Author information

MICHAEL POLLAN is the author of six previous books, including "Food Rules," "In Defense of Food," "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and "The Botany of Desire," all "New York Times "bestsellers. A longtime contributor to "The New York Times Magazine," Pollan is the recipient of the James Beard Award and is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at Berkeley. In 2010, "Time" magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. His most recent book, "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation," was published by The Penguin Press in April 2013.
www.michaelpollan.com

Table of contents

In Defense Of FoodIntroduction: An Eater's Manifesto
I. The Age Of Nutritionism
One: From Foods to Nutrients
Two: Nutritionism Defined
Three: Nutritionism Comes to Market
Four: Food Science's Golden Age
Five: The Melting of the Lipid Hypothesis
Six: Eat Right, Get Fatter
Seven: Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Eight: The Proof in the Low-Fat Pudding
Nine: Bad Science
Ten: Nutritionism's Children
II. The Western Diet And The Diseases of Civilization
One: The Aborigine in All of Us
Two: The Elephant in the Room
Three: The Industrialization of Eating: What We Do Know
1. From Whole Foods to Refined
2. From Complexity to Simplicity
3. From Quality to Quantity
4. From Leaves to Seeds
5. From Food Culture to Food Science
III. Getting Over Nutritionism
One: Escape from the Western Diet
Two: Eat Food: Food Defined
Three: Mostly Plants: What to Eat
Four: Not Too Much: How to Eat
Acknowledgments
Sources
Resources
Index